India vs England 2014, 2nd Test at Lord's: A statistical review of the Mecca of Cricket

Lord’s does not need any introduction; the name suffices.

India move on to Lord’s for the second Test of the 2014 tour against England following the stalemate at Trent Bridge. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the key numbers at the Mecca of Cricket.

Other grounds — even Melbourne Cricket Ground — need introductions. Lord’s does not. The name suffices. The sheer thought of walking through the Long Room to bat brings goosebumps to youngsters. Everything about the ground — from the moment you enter Grace Gates — is made of dreams. There are bigger grounds; there are grounds that have seen more epic battles; but there has been no Lord’s.

Let us have a look at the numbers at Lord’s, then.

First Test

Tests

Decided

% Decided

Balls

Runs

Wickets

Ave

SR

Econ

The Oval

1880

96

59

61.5%

1,96,321

93,235

2,893

32.23

67.9

2.85

Old Trafford

1884

75

40

53.3%

1,46,372

66,891

2,153

31.07

68.0

2.74

Lord’s

1884

128

80

61.7%

2,56,592

1,23,073

3,970

31.00

64.6

2.88

Trent Bridge

1899

60

37

62.7%

1,30,018

59,339

1,830

32.43

71.0

2.74

Headingley

1899

73

55

75.3%

1,46,752

68,599

2,313

29.66

63.4

2.80

Edgbaston

1902

47

32

68.1%

90,900

44,518

1,400

31.80

64.9

2.94

Bramall Lane

1902

1

1

100.0%

1,564

823

40

20.58

39.1

3.16

Riverside

2003

5

5

100.0%

8,083

4,767

152

31.36

53.2

3.54

Sophia Gardens

2009

2

1

50.0%

4,147

2,339

50

46.78

82.9

3.38

Rose Bowl

2011

1

0.0%

1,566

895

23

38.91

68.1

3.43

As one can see, there is not much of a difference between the numbers at Lord’s and the other English grounds. Let us, then, look back at some of the best performers at the historic ground.

Top run-scorers at Lord’s:

Overall

Overseas

Indians

R

Ave

R

Ave

R

Ave

Graham Gooch

2,015

53.02

Warren Bardsley

575

115.00

Dilip Vengsarkar

508

72.57

Andrew Strauss

1,562

52.06

Garry Sobers

571

95.16

Rahul Dravid

354

59.00

Alec Stewart

1,476

44.72

Don Bradman

551

78.71

Sunil Gavaskar

340

34.00

David Gower

1,241

44.32

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

512

85.33

Vinoo Mankad

333

83.25

Kevin Pietersen

1,235

56.13

Dilip Vengsarkar

508

72.57

Gundappa Viswanath

272

34.00

Highest scores at Lord’s:

Overall

Overseas

Indians

Runs

Runs

Runs

Graham Gooch

333

Graeme Smith

259

Vinoo Mankad

184

Graeme Smith

259

Don Bradman

254

Dilip Vengsarkar

157

Don Bradman

254

Gordon Greenidge

214*

Sourav Ganguly

131

Wally Hammond

240

Bill Brown

206*

Dilip Vengsarkar

126*

Jonathan Trott

226

Martin Donnelly

206

Mohammad Azharuddin

121

Most wickets at Lord’s:

Overall

Overseas

Indians

W

Ave

W

Ave

W

Ave

Ian Botham

69

24.53

Glenn McGrath

26

11.10

Bishan Bedi

17

28.94

James Anderson

68

25.14

Richard Hadlee

26

21.26

Kapil Dev

17

32.52

Fred Trueman

63

22.12

Malcolm Marshall

20

17.00

Anil Kumble

12

41.00

Stuart Broad

52

27.90

Courtney Walsh

20

22.95

Zaheer Khan

11

26.36

Bob Willis

47

18.76

Charlie Turner

19

14.63

Mohammad Nissar

10

19.70

Shane Warne

19

19.57

Amar Singh

10

23.00

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

10

33.00

As is easily noticeable, James Anderson may turn out to be a major threat for the Indians.